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George Smith from plucky debutant to seasoned star
By Iain Payten
July 16, 2008 12:00am
JOHN Eales never had any doubt the young kid with dreadlocks would build a long Wallabies career.
It was the end-of-season tour to Europe in 2000, and stepping into the big boots of David Wilson at openside flanker in Paris was a 20-year-old debutant named George Smith.
"Like any young guy he didn't say much but I trusted him right from the start. There was never any hesitation about him in the team," Eales recalls.
Just a year out of colts football, Smith excelled and would go on to prove Eales' predictions of a lengthy Test career emphatically correct. So lengthy, in fact, that this weekend Smith will play his 87th Test and pass his first Wallabies skipper as the most capped Australian forward of all time.
Returning to his No. 7 jersey against the Springboks in Perth, the ACT captain will also move past Eales and Joe Roff to become...
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